TDI

KBA, a German auto industry watchdog, has found illegal emissions control software in Audi’s newest Euro 6 diesel vehicle models, forcing the Volkswagen-owned company to recall more than 127,000 new TDI equipped Audi cars.

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag is reporting that Audi has been given until February 2nd to submit plans to the KBA regarding software updates for the emissions control systems of the vehicles in question. For its part, Audi has issued a statement saying that, “The engine control software for the vehicles in question will be completely revised, tested and submitted to the KBA for approval.”

Reuters provided a bit more context, stating that, “In November, Audi announced a recall of 5,000 cars in Europe for a software fix after discovering they emitted too much nitrogen oxide, the polluting gas that parent Volkswagen concealed from US regulators in its devastating, $18 billion ‘dieselgate’ scandal … Volkswagen was found in 2015 to have illegally manipulated engine software so that vehicles would meet nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards in laboratory testing but not in real-world conditions, where they could emit up to 40 times the permitted levels. Several Audi models were affected and Audi has been accused in media reports of having devised the so-called defeat devices years earlier but not to have installed them in its vehicles at that time. Audi and Volkswagen have never commented on the matter.”

What do you think? Will they get off scot-free, or will the people involved this second time around get even more (well-earned) jail time than the first guys? Let us know what you think in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

In case you missed it, Volkswagen cost itself tens of billions of dollars back in 2015 by fudging the numbers on EPA and European emissions tests with its Bluemotion “clean diesel” engines. In the aftermath of that scandal, one would expect that any new diesel engine from VW would come under intense scrutiny- and that’s what makes the claims surrounding the company’s latest 1.5 liter diesel so interesting.

For starters, there’s the fuel economy. VW claims its latest diesel-powered Golf will go an astounding 61.4 miles for every gallon of diesel you feed. Yes, that’s on the more lenient European testing cycle, but it’s still a huge number.

The key to those big fuel economy numbers is a new engine-off coasting feature that- like existing stop-start technologies that cut the engine off at a stop- shut off the engine while the car is coasting. That means that, if you have your VW Golf TSi’s cruise control set to 68MPH (for example), and you find yourself going down a long hill, the car’s computer will shut the engine off during the descent. Once the engine is needed again to maintain a constant speed, it starts back up. A compact, lithium-ion battery pack keeps the car’s electric accessories going while the car coasts, extending the car’s “coasting range” relative to systems that lack the additional battery backup.

In testing trim, the new 1.5L Volkswagen Bluemotion diesel supposedly produces 129 HP with tailpipe emissions of 104g/km on the New European Driving Cycle.

Yes, I said “supposedly”. With VW’s past history of clever cheats that skirt the edges of legality, I think that’s a fair addition to the above sentence- but it might not be. What do you guys think? Has Dieselgate taught VW that wheaters never win, or do you think they’ve just gotten smarter about who to bribe? Let us know what you think, in the comments.

The fallout surrounding Volkswagen’s emissions control cheating scandal continues to accumulate. Just weeks after the VW brand Audi was caught cheating emissions tests with both diesel andgasoline powered Audi models, the government of South Korea has announced that it plans to file criminal charges against five former and current executives at Volkswagen Group’s South Korean unit.

According to Automotive News reports, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said that it would ask prosecutors to investigate VW’s headquarters, its South Korean unit, and five former and current executives, alleging that Volkswagen made “false, exaggerated, or deceptive” claims in its ads. If the charges hit home, possible punishment for the VW execs could range from jail terms of up to two years or fines of up to 150 million won.

For its part, Audi-Volkswagen Korea (AVK) said that it was, “committed to rebuilding trust with the authorities and with customers and other stakeholders in Korea,” in a statement released earlier this week.

No word, yet, on how VW plans to deal with the criminal charges heading their way in a number of international courts- but that’s never stopped us from flaming them brutally in the comments section! Head on down to the bottom of the page and let us know what you think the courts should do with VW execs who knowingly participated in the scandal- and don’t worry about playing nice when you do.

Volkswagen chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch told the press in Wolfsburg Friday that the whole diesel emissions cheating mess started back in 2005. That’s when company’s engineers were unable to make its new 2.0-liter EA189 diesel engine comply with the limits for NOx emissions imposed by the EPA and, at the time, US rules for diesels were considerably more stringent than European standards. “Looking back, we regrettably have to recognize that the developers involved in the EA 189 project quite simply could not find a way to meet the tougher NOx limits in the United States by permissible means,” he said. “Or, at least they could not find a way they felt at the time to be meaningful and that fitted the time frame and the budget they had been given.”

According to Automotive News, the first cars sold in the US with the EA189 engine were the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta sedan and Sportwagen. Nearly 500,000 of the diesel-engined VWs were sold in the US, touted as being almost as fuel efficient but less expensive than Toyota’s hot-selling Prius. They won the “Green Car of the Year” award and were widely praised by the automotive press.

The original EA 189 diesel used a novel “lean NOx trap” exhaust system to reduce NOx emissions. Other competitors trying to join in the “clean diesel” craze in the US used a urea-based exhaust treatment system that was effective but more expensive. Volkswagen switched to its own urea system for its 2012 cars, but the offending software continued to be used. Customers continued to rave that their diesel-powered cars actually got far better fuel economy than advertised.

“Later down the line, when the effective technical solutions to reduce NOx became available, these solutions were not in fact used as they should have been done, apparently in the mistaken interest of customers,” Poetsch said. “As a result, NOx levels on the test bench were particularly low but they were significantly higher on the road. With hindsight, this all sounds almost a little banal, but that is perhaps why we find the whole thing so painful.” He said the cheating software went against the values of Volkswagen and all of its 600,000 employees.

“We still do not know whether these people involved in this issue from 2005 to the present day were fully aware of the risks they were taking and of the potential damage they could expose the company to,” said Poetsch, “but that’s something else that we’re going to find out.” Volkswagen says 9 managers who “may” have been involved in the emissions manipulations have been suspended.

But that’s not the whole story, is it? Until last spring, Volkswagen was run with an iron fist by Ferdinand Piech. He was shoved aside by Martin Winterkorn, a long-time Volkswagen employee widely regarded as Germany’s best engineer. Now Winterkorn himself has been relieved of his command and another highly regarded engineer, Ulrich Hackenberg, has left the company unexpectedly.

The German government is pursuing a criminal investigation of the company. Any or all of those men may yet be called to account for their actions. For German authorities, the question will be a Nixonian, “What did they know and when did they know it?”

One person who thinks he knows what happened is perennial auto industry gadfly Bob Lutz. He told Road & Track that Ferdinand Piech’s time at the head of Volkswagen was a “reign of terror … where performance was driven by fear and intimidation.” Lutz calls him a ruthless leader who workers would do anything to please — including breaking the rules. “I imagine that at some point, the VW engineering team said to Piech, ‘We don’t know how to pass the emissions test with the hardware we have,’ ” Lutz wrote. “The reply, in that culture, most likely was, ‘You will pass! I demand it! Or I’ll find someone who can do it!’ ”

Remember that statement by Poetsch, the one that said engineers “could not find a way they felt at the time to be meaningful and that fitted the time frame and the budget they had been given”?

Chances are, the time frame and the budget he is referring to were dictated by none other than Ferdinand Piech. Those with long memories may remember Piech strutting about 10 years ago telling anyone who would listen that his company’s diesel engines didn’t need no stinking urea injection system. Obviously, they did!

Volkswagen sales went over a cliff in November. According to Automotive News, VW sales last month dropped 25 percent to 23,882 vehicles. The only month with worse numbers this year was January, when most of America was entombed in massive snow drifts and couldn’t get out of the house. It was the steepest monthly decline for the Volkswagen brand since the global recession of 2008/09.

“Volkswagen is working tirelessly on an approved remedy for the affected TDI vehicles,” McNabb said. “During this time we would like to thank our dealers and customers for their continued patience and loyalty.”

We’re not sure what patience McNabb is referring to here. Sales of the once popular Jetta were off 23 percent and deliveries of the Passat midsize sedan fell a whopping 60 percent. There were a few bright spots, however. Sales of Volkswagen smallest crossover, the Tiguan, surged 88 percent, while both the e-Golf and the GTI hatchback were up 3 percent overall.

Audi’s sister brand, Audi, has seen its sales growth slow a bit since the summer months, but Audi of America chief Mark Del Rosso says he still expects his company to set a new record for sales in the US this year. He thinks Audi could break 200,000 sales for the first time. Audi relies less on the sale of diesel engine vehicles in the US market than Volkswagen does, but the offending V-6 diesel engine used in the Taureg is also used in Audi Q5, Q7, A6, A7 and A8L vehicles. Americans in general do not associate diesel power with luxury automobiles the way European buyers do.

Volkswagen has submitted proposals to the EPA and CARB to fix the almost half million non-conforming diesel cars it sold in the US over the past 7 years. It is still waiting for those agencies to either approve or reject those suggestions.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks (See what I did, there?), you already know about the diesel emissions scandal that’s rocked Volkswagen to the core. To sum up, more than eleven million Volkswagen and Audi vehicles equipped with 2.0 TDi and 1.4 TDi engines were fitted with software that could detect when the car was being emissions tested. If the car thought it was in a test “mode”, emissions got a lot better. Otherwise, well- they weren’t good, and could cost the company $18 billion in EPA fines if it’s found guilty of breaking the laws. That’s the thing, though: it looks like that emissions cheat might be perfectly legal.

According to the minutes from a 2012 meeting of the European Union’s approval authorities, “a manufacturer could specify a special setting that is not normally used for everyday driving” during test procedures. Granted, I don’t think the EU’s governing bodies thought that “special mode” would be used to manipulate the testing, but there it is … and Volkswagen’s attorneys are all over it. “It is still being determined whether the software in question officially constituted a ‘defeat device’,” reads a letter from VW’s UK Paul Willis, to the House of Commons Transport Committee.

You can bet Volkswagen is looking for similar wording in American EPA and Californian CARB laws, respectively.

Even if Volkswagen manages to avoid any legal system consequences for its actions, the company will still have a long way to go before it regains America’s trust. Or, does it? If you found out Volkswagen simply used a loophole in the law, and didn’t actually break any laws, would you be cool with it? Let us know!

This news impacts thousands of Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche diesels fitted with the company’s 3.0 liter TDi engine. The “cheat”, in this case, is also believed to be software related, and it has been revealed that VW’s 1.4 liter diesels (common in Europe and Asia) emit some 900% more harmful nitrous oxide than is legally allowed when the cheat is disabled.

That’s not a typo, either. It really is 900%- nine times- worse than the legal limit.

That’s right. Volkswagen of America will offer $500 to owners of 2.0-liter diesel vehicles with illegal emissions test-rigging software, part of a “goodwill package” (their words) aimed at easing tensions with those customers affected by the company’s deception. “We are working tirelessly to develop an approved remedy for affected vehicles,” said Michael Horn, the new CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. “In the meantime, we are providing this goodwill package as a first step towards regaining our customers’ trust.”

The question, though, isn’t one of money or of how VW plans to actually fix the cheating cars. Instead, the question Volkswagen should be asking itself is, I think: How can we get people to trust us again?

The Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal rolls forward, with around 8.5 million diesel vehicles sold by Volkswagen over the past few years in Europe that will be recalled this week, according to reports. Considering that the German automaker actually sold more than 11 million diesel vehicles that are known to have featured the software that allows for fraudulent testing cycle performance, that interestingly means they’ll still be several million such vehicles not recalled.

The recall will be undertaken via a timeline recently approved by the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority — it’s currently planned that “fixes” will begin in January 2016. Green Car Reports provides more:

Volkswagen says it will recall a total of 8.5 million TDI models in Europe that are equipped with the EA189 four-cylinder engine, including a confirmed 2.4 million just in Germany. Other European countries will clarify in turn exactly which EA189-equipped models within their jurisdictions are affected.

Volkswagen will contact European customers with affected cars directly, and is setting up websites so customers can check to see if their cars are being recalled.

The company is not discussing exactly how it will address the emissions issue, either in Europe or in North America, but says fixes can involve “software as well as hardware measures,” depending on the model. This week’s agreement to mount a massive recall across Europe does not include approximately 482,000 similar vehicles in the United States that have been identified as having the same emissions “defeat device” software.

That’s what Consumer Reports set out to answer. To do so, they fired up a pair of VW diesel Jettas in “cheat mode” and subjected it to CR’s usual battery of tests. They did that by disabling the car’s rear wheel speed sensors. The “hack” meant that the car couldn’t determine if the rear wheels were spinning or not, and- consequently- whether or not the car was on a dyno. It’s a smart play by CR, but for Volkswagen? Let’s just say that the results of their real-world “cheat mode” testing won’t exactly do much to help Volkswagen win friends and influence people.

In CR’s controlled testing, acceleration suffered by a few tenths, showing that horsepower isn’t hugely affected at the low RPM. The biggest difference, then, was in fuel economy. Fuel economy dropped between 3 and 4 MPG in different testing modes. That may not sound Earth-shattering on its own, but it’s more than 40 miles less driving per tank, every tank, and that adds up over each of the eleven million VW diesel cars!

You can check out the full test results in the video, above, and let us know what you think about the VW diesel dilemma in the comments, below.

Reeling from the negative press that began when it was revealed that VW had programmed their diesel cars to lie about their real-world emissions performance from 2009 to the present (almost 11 million cars are affected worldwide), the company is scrambling to jam a finger in the dike until it figures out what to do next. Oddly enough, VW surpassed Toyota just a few months ago to become the largest automaker in the world. But now sales have gone over a cliff because of the news.

Volkswagen is just beginning to talk to regulators about how to fix the problems with the non-conforming cars it built, but it is pedaling furiously to keep current VW owners happy. Effective October 2. the company is handing over $2,000 in customer loyalty cash to any current Volkswagen owner or lessee when they buy a new 2105 or 2016 Volkswagen.

To get the money, there’s no need to trade in a car. All a person has to do is prove he or she currently owns or leases a Volkswagen and then buy an eligible car. Ironically, the offer applies to the Touareg TDI, which is equipped with the company’s V-6 diesel engine. That powerplant meets all current emissions standards and is used in various cars manufactured by the Volkswagen Group, including the Porsche Cayenne.

Volkswagen says the offer is in addition to any other incentives currently offered on any of its cars and that includes the $4,000 rebate available on the slow selling CC “4 door coupe” sedan, EOS convertible and Touareg models. It is also available to family members. The offer ends November 2.

The cash incentive seems to be working. Even though Volkswagen sales have plummeted since the announcement about its emissions cheating scandal, several dealers have reported an uptick in business in the past few days. Michael Morais, president of the New York based Open Road Auto Group, says his two VW stores saw a “significant” increase in sales over the weekend since the programs took effect on Oct. 2. “We have felt an immediate impact,” Morais told Auto Week. “The support has been greatly appreciated.”

Meanwhile, Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn will give testimony on October 8 to the House Energy and Commerce committee. According to Hybrid Cars, he is expected to tell the panel that each of the three generations of the affected 2.0-liter diesel engines will require a different fix. Some of the cars will need software updates while others will need to be fully outfitted with a Urea injection system. He says VW technical teams are “working tirelessly” to find solutions to the emissions problems.

The company announced on October 7 that VW has withdrawn its request to the EPA to certify its 2106 diesel engined cars in the US. That move is the opening gambit in the company’s discussions with regulators about what action the EPA will require. How much this mess will cost the company won’t be known until the EPA decides what actions it will require the company to take in order to make the non-conforming cars comply with US emissions regulations.

Unfortunately, the answer is far from clear, and may vary from country to country. Currently, Volkswagen is exploring options that range from a simple $22 software upgrade to simply buying back the nonconforming cars, scrapping them, and replacing then with new, emissions-compliant cars. That second option would cost the company billions, but they may be forced into it, anyway.

Another plan being considered is to install bigger catalytic converters that would store and neutralize harmful emissions on the affected cars.

Germany has given the company until October 7 to present a plan to regulators. said people who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t final. But what German authorities agree to will not be binding on officials in other countries. Diesel engines accounted for more than half of new vehicle registrations in Europe last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

“We need a clear statement from VW — and regulators — about the European situation,” Max Warburton, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., said in a note to investors on Monday. If recall costs, including scrapping cars, fines and other penalties, are limited to the U.S., “the damage can be contained.” It’s possible that the cheating software, which turned on full emissions controls only when the cars were being tested, was installed in VW’s European cars but not activated, the analyst wrote.

“We’re working as quickly as we can to find a solution for our customers,” said Eric Felber, a spokesman for Volkswagen. “As soon as we can give a reliable statement to that end, we’ll do so without delay.” Volkswagen has said its new diesel cars meet tighter Euro 6 emissions standards and don’t have the cheating software that was installed in the earlier engines. The diesel engines in question were fitted in cars from model year 2009 to 2015.

The appropriate fix will also be different from model to model, according to one of the people familiar with Volkswagen’s plans. The larger 2-liter engines affected already come with a tank of so-called AdBlue solution (aka urea) to neutralize harmful nitrogen oxides. Without the software, the customer would simply need to refill the tank more frequently.

The smaller engines, which have systems that collect nitrogen oxides in the car, are potentially more complicated, because they can’t be retrofitted. Once the exhaust traps are full, the residue is burned off inside the engine, affecting fuel economy. Depending upon what regulators demand, Volkswagen may have to install larger catalytic converters on some cars.

Volkswagen is conducting an internal investigation about who was responsible for installing the fraudulent software. It has suspended several managers, including Wolfgang Hatz, who ran the group’s powertrain development from 2007 to 2011. People familiar with the situation say several engineers have admitted to putting the software into the cars as project engineers determined there was no way to meet both emissions standards and cost controls, according to Bloomberg News.

So far, there is no word on what action US regulators at the state and federal level may demand of the company to clean up its mess. As of today, Volkswagen has removed all reference to diesel powered cars from its North American website.

While diesel sales are significant in Europe (for now), the number of diesel cars Volkswagen has sold in the US of the years amount to only about 1% of total sales in North America. Volkswagen will pay an enormous price for those few extra sales and the extent of the damage can only be guessed at for the moment.

Are you still pining away for a new Volkswagen diesel, despite the fact that the company has admitted to cheating on fully 11 million of their TDi’s emissions tests? If you are, you might be surprised by what you find over at Volkswagen’s US website. Or, rather, what you won’t find: diesels.

That’s right, kids. On the “Build Your Own Volkswagen” site where once you’d find diesel Jettas, diesel Golfs, diesel Passats, and more- you’ll now find the Volkswagen Touareg TDi as the brand’s sole diesel offering in the US. And that, as they say, is huge news.

In and of itself, the move seems to make sense. Since, you know, Volkswagen dealers currently aren’t allowed to sell their inventory of once-popular diesel vehicles. Is the move more significant than that, though? Over at Jalopnik, David Tracy shares his opinion, saying, “on one hand, since you can’t buy one, it makes sense that you can’t configure one. But on the other hand, many automakers offer configurators for vehicles not yet on the market. Volkswagen’s diesels will come back at some point, so why delete them from the website? Either Volkswagen has no ballpark idea of when diesels will make a comeback, or it’s just going to be a really long time from now.”

In case you’re wondering, my money’s on “it’s just going to be a really long time from now.” What about you guys? Let us know when you think VW diesels will make their way back to America in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

That’s right. More than 2 million Audi A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3, and Q5 models equipped with the TDI diesel engine option have been fitted with the Volkswagen emissions cheat. Of those, roughly 13,000 vehicles are in the US with an additional 577,000 residing in Germany. The remaining 1.4 million cars are scattered throughout Europe, but won’t be doing much to help VW’s corporate image, regardless of where they’re at.

Maybe I’m wrong, and VW can get itself (and Audi) out of this current mess — but I think it will take a generation of car buyers (and EPA investigators!) to come and go before that happens. What do you guys think? Let us know, in the comments.

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The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc., its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.

The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc., its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.